Nearing Midnight: Shemitah Ponderings – Terry James

America, I am of the persuasion, stands at its most critical juncture in the history of the republic. Its final disposition, at least considering this dispensation, might well already be set within the fate of nations–i.e., the immediate future of the U.S. might now be beyond the ability of mere human political/governmental processes to salvage.

Two parts of the above requires clarification. First, my thoughts include consideration of the possibility that America now is being swept along by the supernatural tide of prophecy. Human instrumentalities might no longer, in fact, pilot this ship of state. This is not to diminish the scriptural truth that the God of Heaven is in ultimate control of nations and of history. It might be, however, that He has, for now-because of rejection of His guidance-moved away from the helm.

If not human governors, then what or who is in charge while the nation enters some of the most treacherous geopolitical waters of our history?

A most troublesome question indeed…

The second part of the opening paragraph that needs clarification is the following” “[America’s] final disposition, at least considering this dispensation, might well already be set within the fate of nations.”

By this, I mean that while America’s fate for the balance of this dispensation (Age of Grace) and into the Tribulation period might already be sealed prophetically in a tragic way, the nation might again achieve God-blessed nationhood-and even of a more spectacular nature-during the Millennium, the thousand-year reign of Christ.

The United States has been a friend of Israel, and I have to believe-at least fervently hope–that God’s blessings, which we have enjoyed beyond measure throughout our brief history, might be restored because of our until-now close relationship to the Jewish state. –That, and the fact that America has been used to spread the gospel across the world for our entire history.

But, if that is destined to be, that is for that future time. For now, the forces at the helm of the American ship of state are driving the nation into dangerous shoals in many ways. We have pondered over the wrong turns America’s leadership is taking the country many times in these Nearing Midnight commentaries.

Just to mention a few…

America’s Supreme Court said our children could no longer pray or read Bible Scriptures in public schools in 1963 and 1964. That court ruled that babies could be aborted in 1973, bringing on infanticide (and that’s what it is). More than 55 million children in their mothers’ wombs have been systematically executed since that date. The U.S. government, its most recent president, and the federal courts, in conjunction with the mainstream news and entertainment media, have pushed the homosexual agenda at every turn. Our vernacular has become salacious and politically correct in ways that has perverted society and culture beyond recognition. Our founding fathers, if they could witness the travesty the progressive thinkers have perpetrated on America, from their times in history, peering into ours, they would likely have decided to just pay the king his homage and forget the whole thing.

And, I don’t dismiss or excuse the complicity of the Laodicean church and it’s inward turning to false doctrines and pursuit of riches in bringing about America’s downfall.

I have waited long, and thought hard, before weighing in on my friend Jonathan Cahn’s book, The Mystery of the Shemitah. My reaction to his first book on America’s movement toward the turbulent sea of nation-state shipwrecks, The Harbinger, was instantaneous recognition that, although presented in fictional form, the book was God-sent warning. I expressed this, by way of review, although there were many detractors to the book’s giving such God-directed warning.

Cahn’s follow-up, I have concluded, after prayer, consideration, and observation of swiftly deteriorating conditions at every level of our nation’s activities, is that The Mystery of the Shemitah is a second warning from the heart of God, who loves and cares about this special nation He founded as surely as He founded Israel.

Now, before some say I have just said that God has covenants with America in the way He has with Israel, let me say that’s not the case. But, He does deal in the same ways with nations-inclusive of America and Israel, as both the Bible and history proves. There is most definitely a linkage of God’s dealings with Israel in matters of the Shemitah, and His dealing with this country in terms of His divine discipline. Those people God chooses to bless, He will discipline when they pull away from His divine direction.

The difference between the Lords’s dealing in this way with Israel versus dealing with America is that God has promised that there will always be an Israel, no matter what. He has expressed no such promise to this once-great nation He so profoundly hovered over at its founding and through the centuries that have followed.

September 13 of this year is the date many are thrusting forward as the date America and the world gets their comeuppance, based upon that view of what the Shemitah means for our time. I completely disagree that the date will necessarily bring judgment and wrath and/or spectacular reaction from the Lord.

The Lord is patient, and His timing can’t be corralled into our own concepts of how and when He should act or react. But, judgment is coming. In my view, it is unlikely it will or even can be deterred. But, all things are possible with God, as His own Son, Jesus Christ, told us.

The writer of the book in question, himself, has not put the Lord in some human, time-constraint box. Here is what Jonathan has said about the Shemitah:

Nothing significant has to happen. …The phenomenon may manifest itself in one cycle, not in another, and then again in the next. And the focus of the message is not date-setting but the call of God to repentance and return. At the same time, something of significance could take place, and it is wise to note the times.

He further said the following, and I am in complete agreement:

I believe a great shaking is coming to this nation and to the world. I believe that this shaking will involve economic and financial collapse, though it will not necessarily be confined or limited to those realms.

I have long believed that it will be the Rapture of the church of Jesus Christ that will initiate the dire consequences of judgment. Remember, Jesus told us-and this is a Rapture prophecy, not a Second Advent prophecy- that He will next intervene catastrophically at a time exactly like it was in the days of Noah and in the days of Lot. Judgment will fall that very day, Jesus said. (Read Matthew 24:36-42 and Luke 26-30.)

Examine yourself, as will I examine my own life. Be sure you are Rapture Ready!

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A pre trib rapture would be vastly different from what happened in Noah and Lot’s day. They both knew exactly when the wrath would come before it was poured out and they both had to take physical steps to be protected from it. The pre trib rapture stands on the doctrine of imminence and no one can know when the wrath will come nor can they nor will they take any physical steps to be protected from the wrath. In fact, a pre trib rapture would be completely unprecedented in every way. In contrast, a pre wrath rapture would be completely consistent with the patterns set out in scripture. Especially the examples that Jesus held up. If the pre trib rapture is not how the end comes, the result of following this false teaching will be the complete rejection of having entered the final seven years by those that hold to this false teaching. Sixtytwocutoff

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Revelation 1:3 "Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near".
Tommy Settipani,
Watchman for Christ